In the Women and Gender Studies class I took last semester, my professor felt it was essential to enlighten us about several central aspects of feminist political theory, one of which was the notion that "the personal is political." So, what does this mean, exactly? "The personal is political" means that many personal problems women face are not their fault or due to their own shortcomings, but instead the natural and inevitable result of gendered oppression in a patriarchal society.
The term "the personal is political" was made popular by Carol Hanisch in her famous 1969 essay of the same name, although Hanisch has publicly spurned any credit attributed to her for this term. Instead, according to Kerry Burch (another feminist closely associated with the phrase), "they cite millions of women in public and private conversations as the phrase's collective authors." This term is so important because it gives legitimacy to women's issues, allowing women to recognise that their problems are not isolated and singular but are instead collective and symptomatic of their social condition.
Although this term was originally used in February 1969 in order to stir students and the general population to action in the second wave of the feminist movement, it is still essential today. There have been huge inroads to success in the women's movement in the past 100 years; however, there is still much to be done. Women, on a somewhat superficial level, are dubbed equal to men. Women now have the right to vote, the ability to attend university with the same frequency as their male counterparts, and an important role in the work force. But at the same time, women face a host of other issues.
This brings us to the GOP debate that took place last week. Most, if not all, GOP presidential candidates do not seem to promote policies that enhance women's welfare. An overwhelming number of the candidates are pro-life, including Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and more. This pro-life stance denies women the right to choose their future. Abortion is a controversial issue and no one is condemning these candidates for being averse to the practice for moral or religious reasons. However, the problem arises when they try to stop women from accessing and exercising their own right to choose if and when they have a child.
Ted Cruz argued that in the heavily edited sting videos, "Planned Parenthood essentially confesses to multiple felonies . . . we shouldn't be sending $500 million of taxpayer money to funding an ongoing criminal enterprise." Unsurprisingly, the United States government does not give this amount of money to a "criminal enterprise." Instead, Planned Parenthood offers critical and life-saving breast cancer screenings, pap tests, STI tests and HIV tests, while only three percent of their services are abortion services. Worryingly, the GOP candidates remained silent on a number of issues women are concerned about, including the topics of birth control, equal pay and childcare.
Donald Trump did not want women to worry about these issues though. Trump argued, "I will take care of women. I respect women. I will take care of women." It appears the GOP candidates don't believe women are responsible enough to make their own decisions and that they need someone like Donald Trump to help guide them.
I believe the GOP debate highlighted how important "the personal is political" mentality is. Women's issues are political. When a woman cannot afford health care, a basic human right, this is political. When a woman cannot gain access to contraceptives due to legal or monetary barriers, this is political. And when a woman is deemed unfit to make her own decisions regarding her own body and her overall welfare, this again is political.
Given that women represent 53 percent of the electorate, I would encourage the GOP candidates to take another look at their campaign platform. Hanisch wrote in 1969 that the personal is political, and she is right. Women's rights are still under attack and it is important that we don't see women's problems through a singular lens in an isolated, unaffected vacuum, but as real, live issues that demand attention now.
